Supply.

– Every available statistic tells us that the world’s tropical rainforests are being rapidly destroyed.

Most of our timber is sold on the Costa Rican timber market. Costa Rica has recently had to begin importing hardwood due to a deficit in available timber. It has been estimated by the ONF (Costa Rican National Forestry Office) and the National Forestry Financing fund that by the year 2010 there will be a shortage of some 80% of required timber further driving prices up.

Teak, in particular is becoming increasingly difficult to source, Myanmar (formerly Burma) is currently one of the world’s largest exporters of Teak. However, the U.S. Senate recently passed an act forbidding the import of timber from Myanmar, further reducing the availability of Teak.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that each year about 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are lost due to deforestation. From 2000 to 2005, the net forest loss was 125 square miles per day.

The demand for tropical timber is increasing at an unsustainable rate. World consumption of tropical hardwoods has multiplied nearly 25 times in just the last four decades, to more than 100 billion board feet each year.

According to the ONF (Costa Rican National Forestry Office), teak prices have gone up 15% per annum between 2002 – 2007 with 2007 prices increasing by a staggering 67% due to the deficit.

Less than 1% of the world’s demand for tropical hardwoods can be supplied by sustainable plantation forestry. The vast majority still comes from the natural rainforests and with more and more countries clamping down on illegal logging the availability of Tropical Hardwood is in rapid decline, driving prices up.